Monday, October 23, 2006

The Man Who Tried to BLOW UP Martin Luther King, Part One

"Gilbert's credentials were unorthodox, to say the least. He had a 1965 conviction for possessing 1,400 pounds of stolen dynamite, with which he had planned to blow up a stage where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was making a speech. ..."---http://www.komotv.com/news/printstory.asp?id=35278

SEATTLE - Federal agents and Seattle police have arrested a known white supremacist who once spent time in prison for plotting to kill Martin Luther King Junior.

But now he's charged in connection with a Seattle federal gun raid. Two other Seattle men were also arrested.

FBI and The Federal Joint Terrorism Task Force searched two boarding houses in Seattle's Roosevelt neighborhood Tuesday morning, surprising tenants who live there, but are not connected to the charges.

"I heard police yelling in the house, next thing we know we've got SWAT with guns in our faces," said Ellen.

She was too afraid to give her full name, but says 65-yaer-old Keith Gilbert, a former leader in the Aryan Nations, is her landlord.

"All we ever heard from Keith is if you have problems, let us know. We have people who can take care of these things. (I) just thought it was an old man talking," says Ellen.

But the FBI and terrorism task force says there's much more. They pulled countless assault rifles, semi automatic firearms and ammunition from Gilbert's basement. From his house alone, they confiscated more than 180 boxes of evidence.

"I'm not aware of any machine guns in the house, I don't own any, I don't know of him having any. If they found any, it would be a real surprise to me," says Joshua Gilbert.

Some neighbors said they weren't surprised. They said they've heard rumors, but never any proof.

"No, it's not real shocking to me, I know enough about the guy that it doesn't surprise me," says Mike Benneck, who works at a nearby fruit stand.

So far, only three suspects are in custody. But there could be more. While Gilbert faces gun-related charges, his neighbor William Heinrich, who rents a room in a boarding home across from Roosevelt High School, is also facing gun charges.

"We thought it was a little hinky that he had five locks on his door, ya know, didn't want anybody in his room ever," Ellen said of William Heinrich. FBI agents also found weapons in his room.

He and Gilbert are friends, but federal agents think they're business partners in an illegal gun ring.

"I never heard him dealing in guns or selling guns or doing anything like that at all," says Blake Sisley, a neighbor and business owner.

A third suspect, Preston Hejna, also of Seattle is charged with conspiracy to transfer five pounds of C4 plastic explosive that prosecutors said had nodetection agent.

Federal prosecutors say the suspects' motive was money, and do not believe the illegal firearms have any white supremacy connection.

If convicted, Gilbert is facing 50 years in prison. He and Heinrich are felons and not allowed to own firearms.

Wednesday, the FBI arrested a fourth suspect and is still looking for a fifth.---------------------------http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002182455_weapons17m.htmlThursday, February 17, 2005 - 12:00 AM

Two play key role in white supremacist's riseBy Maureen O'Hagan and Michael KoSeattle Times staff reporters

A key to Gilbert's influence in the neighborhood was his relationship with Hugh and Drake Sisley, two brothers who own dozens of properties in the area. The relationship has since soured, but the influence remains, neighbors say.

"The guy should have been a nobody, he should have been run out of town on a rail," said Pat Strosahl, former president of the Roosevelt NeighborhoodAssociation. "But they gave him a position of responsibility and allowed his thuggishness to essentially represent them."

On Tuesday, Gilbert, 65, was arrested for allegedly selling two machine guns to an informant working for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Federal agents also removed dozens of weapons and ammunition from his home.

Also Tuesday, Gilbert's friend and neighbor, William D. Heinrich, 50, was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Meanwhile, authorities arrested two more men — John Hejna and Alen J. Long — in a related case involving the sale of plastic explosives. A third man in that case, Barton Carter, is still at large.

Authorities said the arrests do not appear to be related to any plots.

Upon Gilbert's arrest, neighbors cheered. And they wondered what took authorities so long. Gilbert met the Sisleys about 15 years ago, when Hugh Sisley needed help managing his properties, according to Sisley's lawyer, David Vogel. The Sisley brothers owned three full blocks of the neighborhood, mostly single-family homes converted into multi-family units.

Hugh Sisley didn't return calls yesterday.

Gilbert's credentials were unorthodox, to say the least. He had a 1965 conviction for possessing 1,400 pounds of stolen dynamite, with which he had planned to blow up a stage where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was making a speech. In the 1980s, Gilbert was convicted in Idaho on charges related to sending hate mail to an adoption agency that placed black children with white families.

He became a devotee of Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler, although the two had a falling-out and Gilbert formed his own white-supremacist organization, the Socialist Nationalist Aryan People's Party.

In prison, Gilbert honed his skills as a jailhouse lawyer — which held a certain appeal for Hugh Sisley, Vogel said. Sisley saw himself as providing low-income housing that wasn't otherwise available in the neighborhood, and, as such, upkeep wasn't necessarily going to be part of the deal.

According to former Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran, the Sisleys became "legendary" for their run-down properties and resisted all efforts to bring them up to code.

Hugh Sisley saw in Gilbert a fellow outsider, someone who could help him fight off the encroachment of government into their business affairs, Vogel said.

Drake Sisley described Gilbert as "ornery," a man who was surprisingly good at navigating cyberspace and finding valuable bits of information about zoning codes and building laws. "He's not stupid, he's obnoxious," Drake Sisley said. "He's an in-your-face kind of guy."

The combination of dozens of run-down properties and Gilbert's criminal background caused no end of trouble, Sidran said. "Gilbert introduced a level of fear and intimidation into the relationships with tenants and with the neighbors," Sidran said. Gilbert would "yell in the middle of the back porch and just raise hell" if someone let a housing inspector into one of the Sisleys' properties, said Sonny Warner, who lived in a property Gilbert managed.

Gilbert walks with a limp, keeps his beard unruly and wears his hair long and straggly.

Acquaintances comment on his bad teeth, his confrontational personality and his racist beliefs. Other descriptions are even worse.

Neighbors say Gilbert's image was solidified by his walking around with a German shepherd and carrying a pistol.

Sometimes the intimidation was done through the courts. Gilbert sued tenants, building inspectors, city officials and neighbors, sometimes for millions of dollars. In one federal lawsuit, he claimed his constitutional rights had been violated when a city inspector stepped on his front porch. In another, he accused an inspector of breaking and entering, even though the inspector was invited in by a tenant. Another time, he claimed the city was carrying out "class warfare" in its inspection process.

Gilbert filed so many frivolous claims that U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein barred him from suing any city officials without her explicit permission. He then filed a lawsuit against her.

A similar prohibition was filed in Idaho a decade earlier.

Although the frivolous claims were ultimately dismissed, the strategy could be costly and stressful to those he sued.

Meanwhile, Hugh Sisley began to realize "he was making a lot of enemies" thanks to Gilbert, Vogel said. He also began to suspect he wasn't getting all the money he was due from Gilbert.

Drake Sisley had similar thoughts: "When he was taking care of my properties, he shoveled the problems aside, combined them and multiplied them."

The brothers in recent years have backed away from their relationship with Gilbert, Vogel and Drake Sisley said.

According to court papers, a man who lived near Gilbert agreed to wear a recording device and buy weapons from Gilbert as part of a federalinvestigation into his activities. The informant, who is not identified in court papers, was Hugh Sisley's tenant, a man Sisley knew and trusted, according to Vogel.

Gilbert remains in federal custody, charged with selling automatic weapons to an undercover informant and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.--------------------------http://nord.twu.net/acl/dawsongilbert.html

Drastic changes to government are underway across the globe. By the year 2020 we will all be governed by a new system of law.

A common citizen's guide to the Emerging Supra-National Empire

What does Keith Gilbert have to do with the Dawson lawsuit?by Niki Raapana and Nordica Friedrich, February 21, 2005

Appelate Brief for Dawson v. The City of Seattle

Keith Gilbert was a primary reason the appelate court ruled in favor of the Seattle Police Department's policy of detainment.

Update September 13, 2006:

Who is Neo-Nazi Keith Gilbert? Is it just a coincidence that Daniel Pipes links Gilbert and the Aryan Nation to Islamic jihad? We're getting lots of hits on this page again, is Keith Gilbert's name back in the news? (Why would someone from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation be looking for websites referring to Keith Gilbert?) If he's back in the news, I can't find anything recent. But I did find this excerpt from a chronicle called "Conspiracy Nation, Vol 1 #92."

There is an odd postscript to the assassinations of both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. A few days, in fact four days, after Malcolm X was assassinated, that was February 21st, 1965, there was an abortive attemptto assassinate Martin Luther King as well. Martin Luther King was attending a movie in Los Angeles and police received a tip and they discovered a largedynamite bomb at the theater, which had it gone off, would have certainly killed Dr. King and virtually anyone else in that theater. Eventually an American neo-Nazi named Keith Gilbert, was convicted of this assassination attempt on Martin Luther King. Gilbert maintained that while in prison, he was receiving support from very powerful forces. It later came to light that he was receiving money and that the individual he was receiving money from was a fellow named Loren Eugene Hall, himself a paramilitary whiteright-winger and white-supremacist who had been one of the main informants for then Reagan legal-counselor Edwin Meese concerning the case of Edgar Eugene Bradley. Edgar Eugene Bradley was sought by JimGarrison in New Orleans in connection with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Edgar Eugene Bradley was a resident of the state of California. Garrison filed an extradition request, then deputy state attorney general Charles A. O'Brien (sp) reviewed the Garrison extradition request, recommended that it be granted. Activity on the Garrison extradition request for Bradley was delayed by then-governor Reagan until after Richard Nixon was elected president and then was turned down without comment. The Edgar Eugene Bradley extradition request was handled for Reagan by then Reagan legal advisor, legal counsellor Edwin A. Meese, who later, of course, became attorney general of the United States and who also was a highly ranked intelligence officer with the Army reserve, both then and now.

The guy who Ed Meese dealt with primarily was a former CIA operative in connection with the anti-Castro Cuban activities and a white-supremacist named Loren Eugene Hall, who in 1989 incidentally, was indicted for running a methamphetamine ring in Oklahoma. His son, Loren, Jr., who was also indicted and named in the indictment, stated at a press conference that the entire methamphetamine ring was being used to channel funding to the contras. That, by the way, from the Dallas Morning News of September 13th of 1989. It was this guy who was providing financial support to Keith Gilbert while he was in prison for having placed this huge dynamite bomb in an L.A. theater four days after Malcolm X was assassinated in New York. Now KeithGilbert eventually became one of the top lieutenants for Richard Gernt (sp) Butler, the head of the Aryan Nations compound at Hayden Lake, Idaho. Later Keith Gilbert broke with Butler and established his own compound a few miles down the road.

Interesting enough, Keith Gilbert was linked to a fellow named Michael Wayne. Michael Wayne's name came up in connection with the assassination of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles. A Michael Wayne was known to have been at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, asking what route senator Kennedy was going to take to exit from his press conference. Michael Wayne was alsoa very, very close, not a double, but he resembled very closely Sirhan Sirhan, the patsy in the Robert Kennedy assassination. The individual generally citedby most investigators as actually having pulled the trigger on Robert Kennedy was a white supremacist named Thane Eugene Caesar who worked for Lockheed's Burbank facility, and specifically worked in the topsecret area associated with the CIA's U-2 project.

Oswald also was affiliated with the U-2. Caesar was working as a security guard for a security service in the Ambassador Hotel the night of the shooting. He was a documented white-supremacist and, again, he workedin the Lockheed Burbank facility and another engineer in Lockheed Burbank was Richard Gernt Butler, one of whose top lieutenants was Keith Gilbert, whose name was linked in L.A.P.D. files to Michael Wayne, a Sirhan double, who was in the Ambassador Hotel. And again, it was Keith Gilbert who was convicted of this attempt on the life of Martin Luther King four days after Malcolm was killed. Not that that necessarily proves anything, but when you take those coincidences in combination with the enormous number of evidenciary tributaries linking various aspects of our assassinations and political assassinations, it is pretty clear that this is more than just coincidence, and I personally have always felt that the Keith Gilbert-Richard Gernt Butler-Thane Eugene Caesar, Malcolm X assassination-Martin Luther King assassination-Robert Kennedy assassination link has never been properly investigated.

It is also worth noting that the people who brought the Sirhan family into the United States were college friends and political associates of Richard Nixon, who was a prime beneficiary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy and the director for security for Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign was a fellow named James Golden, who was on leave from his position as director ofsecurity for the Lockheed Corporation, at which Thane Eugene Caesar was employed. And again, that does not prove anything either, but when you examine this country's political assassinations, be it the assassinations of the Kennedys or Martin Luther King, or Malcolm X, Incidentally there is an echo which comes forward right to this day. One of the main civil rights leaders of the early '60s, Medgar Evers (sp) the field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, he was assassinated in 1963, a few months before Kennedy was assassinated. A white-supremacist named Byron de La Beckwith (sp) has been indicted for his assassination and is going to stand trial. He has been able to wiggle out of this so far. When Byron de La Beckwith was seeking to avoid indictment for the assassination of Medgar Evers, much of his political support came from former Major General Edwin Walker. Edwin Walker had been a divisional commander in Germany and was replaced by John Kennedy because Edwin Walker was violating Army regulations by obliging his troops to study the "Blue Book" of the John Birch Society. It is a violation of U.S. military regulations to force your troops to study political doctrine. Edwin Walker was fired by John Kennedy. He then came to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area where he became a protege of H.L. Hunt and in the fifth volume of the 26 volumes of Warren Commission testimony and exhibits, it is revealed, or it is documented that, Edwin Walker's John Birch Society cell was used as a vehicle for bringing military intelligence agents over from Munich, Germany to operate at the field level in the assassination of John Kennedy.

More...

Based on Gilbert's reputation, the City originated the "our cops are wimps" line of defense in Dawson. The Dawson clients did not live in a Keith house. The City's attorneys claimed Seattle COPS were either so afraid of Gilbert they had to take all his neighbors at Todd's houses hostage.. or .. they're so afraid of everyone they have to take everyone hostage. The Dawson raid was a training exercise in "serving warrants." According to Seattle's training notes from Tacoma Cares, detainment is a routine method of accompanying inspectors on searches if gangs are suspected.

Keith Gilbert used the handle "Diesal". I suspected it when I began following his posts on a Gun discussion board that led people to us. He said he was from Seattle, and I suspected it was him, even though the style of writing was nothing like the insane babbling he wrote in all his lawsuits against Seattle government.I found it disturbing that Gilbert was introducing my work on communitarianism, a topic about which he knows nothing. Unlike the Gilbert I knew,"Diesal" seemed to have a much better grasp ofEnglish, he appeared quite literate. Like Etzioni (another former terrorist), Gilbert does not appear to have written everything he put his name on. One member from the forum where he linked to us pasted in the federal charges against Gilbert.